LETTERS FORM THE FRONT

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 21 May 1915, Page 2

LETTERS FORM THE FRONT

In a letter headed "Somewhere Eke in. France or Belgium," an Edinburgh private in the Scots Guards bays: "Are you superstitions? flow *s this tor unlucky 13? lhirtrfsrJj men weie taken from the 13th plat©c» to go on a listening post, otherwise certain death. We were on 26 hours-~4hafc kj twice 13— and the day was Saturday, the 13th. The strange thing is we are tho first party that has come bagk complete. We did not evipn/get anyone wounded. As the 'post' is siluftteft> between tour lines of German and British trenches, you can imagine how dangerous it is. Of course, 1 was one of the 'unlucky' 13, and belong to the 13th platoon. Last week a board appeared above the German trenches .with the words, ] 'Don't wast'a your ammunition on us; keep it for the Prussians' written on it. When I'was on the 'listening' post I heard some of the Germans singing quite happily. .They even swea^ at each- other in English.,".. . ,- - " AmaziHg sloriea of British'tenacity fend endurance are related in the following letter from !Prlv.at9 G. L. Walker, Ist Herts Infantry, to a friend at/Oroydbn: 'Oh out second night in I the trenches tw© wounded men managed to cfa\vl into the trench. We 'were abeut to shoot, when one called out that they belonged to the ———, nod i&*t saved them. They got in at 4.30 a.m., and had been crawling since ■6.30 the previous evenings For four days they liad lain in a shell hole, both founded in the feet. W© could 6ee where the bullets had entered the boot and the blood congealed., The use of thair legs had gone, and they pulled themselves along xj^h their hands. W0 gave them aomething to pat and water to drink, together with an nss'ufe; ■of rum, which luckily had been left over. When one had heen carried to nospital the other .sufficiently recovered to tell this story as near as I can remember: "Both off *&fs were knocked over iv 9 charge, awd we were left between th*s lines. 11l the morning the Germans fired on us and threw bombs. We crawled to a shell-hole and stoppe.il there. In the evening two Germans came wit, cut off our equipment, took our "water bottles and pack, and one was agoing to stab my pal when your men (the Herts) started a rapid fire. They ran away then, and we saw nc 1 more of them. We kept ourselves alive on two biscuits and water from the ' bottles of dead comrades. When nc . one came olit for us—our people naturally thought we were dead—we decided to crawl fbr the lines." The first thing of any importance tc us in the trenches was the flight of s German aeroplanes over our lines—the first we Jiad seen since landing ir ■j France. Soon after that our guns > started a general bombardment, and . then commenced a second Dante's "In- ■ ferno." Four hundred and fifty of oui I guns were firing, and some Germans, ! but not many. This was kept up fqi just over half an hour, after which ii slackened up a bit and the order came to advance. Some of us managed tc get into a disused trench, in which was water-Over our knees. It was three days before we got dry feet again, al- . though. "■©Mr legs dried fairly quickly, Evidently "it was a trench captured from the Germans earlier in the day J We were then told we were to make s charge. My heart for once quailed, Well, we made it, and captured a j trench and 63 prisoners. A miserable , lot they were, too, going down on then .! knees and crying, "We beg pardon, " as .soon as they got the bayonet neat them. It was now nearly dark, *nid we had to get the trench ivad- icr as attack. You can understand that th* positions were reversed, the German I loopholes and barricades having to be transposed from what was their front I to their rear, which then became our front. . This was a long job, and not I much sleep did we get that night. 1 ' fo.gct to tell you, that the trench was fitted up in quite a luxurious manner. There were living rooms, in which we found stoves and chairs, and in the officers' dug-out were cushions and mattresses, so you see that there was ! not much hardship in spending the j winter there. They had been in these , trenches for over four months, and so had had plenty of time to mak* themselves comfortable.—Private Turner, 3rd London Regiment.